Chances are if you’re a woman over the age of 30, you’re probably flattered when you’re asked to flash your ID to buy booze … unless you’re 60-year-old Abigail Pritchard.
Stroud News reports Pritchard was outraged that she was carded at her local Waitrose when she wanted to buy two bottles of red wine. She was shopping with her 23-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter at the time.
“[My daughter] waited outside the alcohol section whilst I got the wine, but upon checkout I was shocked to be asked for ID — I am 60 years old — and they asked for my daughter’s ID, as well,” she recalled. “We were then surrounded by staff and humiliated in front of the entire shop as they refused the sale of alcohol to me, stating it is the law.”
Continued Pritchard, “I think it is blatantly obvious to anyone that expensive wine bought with a Sunday lunch by a 60-year-old woman and her daughter is very unlikely to be a proxy sale … It was a case of a jobsworth wanting to exercise some sense of power over me, who enjoyed the humiliation in front of our local community.”
A Waitrose spokesperson noted the cashier was just being precautious. “Like at any retailer, if one of our cashiers believes alcohol could potentially be purchased for a minor, they are always encouraged to take a precautionary approach and check the ID of both customers,” they explained.
Pritchard said she’s shopped at that precise store for 60 years, but vowed to never return. “I will have to go further afield for my weekly shops now, as I cannot show my face in that shop again,” she lamented.